Mexico......Ole'

Saturday, December 21, 2013

No, we did not make it to Mexico….but almost. This is as close as we got. We were in Douglas AZ, which is right on the border. We went down to inspect missionary vehicles, one of our new responsibilities. We stopped in Bisbee as well. It was really interesting. There is a long street right on the border with a bunch of fast food restaurants and a Penneys store. There were a number of people walking back and forth across the border to shop. We did not cross the border because RoLayne did not have her passport with her….and, it is against mission rules. It was a nice drive down and back this morning, but not real scenic, except for the large open pit mine in Bisbee. It was also the coldest day since we have been here. It only reached 45 degrees today and it was windy. RoLayne has been busy the past few days baking cookies to take to our neighbors. It is more baking than I remember her doing in a long time. I think she is done for the holidays at least.

All of the soldiers have left the base so things are a bit slow there. We did stop by the Base Chaplain’s office and were able to visit with the lady who is the secretary to the chief chaplain. She has been out sick due to surgery since we got here. We met her on her last day of work in Mid-October. The surgery was to remove a 40 lb tumor from her stomach area. It was cancerous, but was fully contained in a kind of sack. She showed us a picture of the tumor. It looked like a basketball. She is doing amazingly well. They had to remove one kidney, part of her liver, and part of her colon. Since it was all contained, she does not have to have chemotherapy. She is going back into the hospital on January 6 to have a hip replacement however. She is quite a lady.

We invited the couple that we work with on post over for dinner this week. It was really nice. We have become very good friends.

The bishop asked us to visit a sister in the ward whose husband is a civilian working in Afghanistan. He has been working there for 5 years. She deals with a lot of depression. I hope our visit helped to cheer her up. I cannot imagine being separated that long from family and loved ones. I think he comes home once or twice a year for a couple of weeks. We asked the bishop again if there was someone that might benefit from a visit from us. I am hopeful that we will get more opportunities now.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Today we attended the Huachuca ward for all meetings as the soldiers have left for the holidays. The missionary couple responsible for the LDS addiction program in this area came to our sacrament meeting. They actually came to see us and see how the addiction program is going on post. Unfortunately, there is not an active program on post. We talked about starting one. We are going to attend some training and meetings in Tucson to get better acquainted with the program so we will be better prepared to act as a group leader if needed. We had some training in the MTC, but it was very basic.

We have received Christmas and birthday wishes from many of you, for which we are most grateful. We do love and miss all of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas.